STORY ARCHIVE

Schizophrenia Update

In the year 2000, Quantum met a couple of QLD scientists who had a bizarre theory, which linked schizophrenia to a lack of sunlight. They believed that mums who didnít get enough sunlight during pregnancy could result in a vitamin D deficiency Ė which in turn could affect their babyís brain development. Tonight, Maryanne Demasi pays them a visit to see if they are any closer to the truth.

TRANSCRIPT

Professor John McGrath: We all feel better in the sun. You donít need to be a research scientist to work that out but there is some evidence now that the amount of vitamin D that we get as children may actually imprint on our body.

Narration: Prof John McGrath became intrigued after reading a QLD study that showed the more overcast the weather, the higher the incidence of schizophrenia.

His theory was that some pregnant women didnít get enough sunlight - leaving them with a vitamin D deficiency - which in turn, affected their babyís brain development. At the time it was nothing more than a bizarre theory so they put it to the test in animals.

Dr Alan Mackay-Sim: Itís a very open question as to what causes schizophrenia so one has to take long shots for any chance of success. So weíre taking them.

Dr Maryanne Demasi: Well, it has been 7 years and I am here in sunny Queensland to see if that long shot paid off.

Narration: Dr Tom Burne has been studying how vitamin D deficiency could affect a ratís behaviour.After depriving the animals of Vitamin D during development, he monitored the behaviour of adult rats using sophisticated video surveillance.

Dr Tom Burne: When we placed the rats in an open field and then they were given psychosis inducing drugs the rats ran around allot, but in the rats which had vitamin D depletion during development they ran around a lot more.

Dr Maryanne Demasi: So what does it mean that these rats run around like crazy?

Dr Tom Burne: Well our theory is that rats that had vitamin D deficiency during development have altered chemicals in the brain and that are similar to chemicals altered in the brain in people with schizophrenia.

Narration: Just next door, Dr Darryl Eyles has been researching whether vitamin D deficiency could affect an animalís brain structure.

On this cross-section of a ratís brain, he noticed there was a significant increase in the lateral ventricles of those animals deprived of vitamin D during development.

Dr Darryl Eyles: There isnít much to hang your hat on in schizophrenia research at all anatomically and to find we had that change we thought OK thereís something in this so lets go and have a much more involved look.

Narration: And when he compared the rat brains to human brain scans he noticed some intriguing similarities.

Dr Darryl Eyles: Iíve just put up an image of an MRI of a live patient of a control and a schizophrenic and you can see the enlarged ventricles, the enlarged feature that you see in 75% of patients with the disease is this enlarged lateral ventricles.

Narration: Although there are similarities, the next step is to find out whether vitamin D deficiency in utero is what causes the enlargement in humans.

Professor John McGrath: With respect to animals itís a done deal. However the $64,000 question is - does it mean anything for humans? And the answer is that we still donít know. We still have a lot of work to do!!

YOUR COMMENTS

Comments for this story are closed. No new comments can be added.

stuart campbell - 24 Mar 2012 6:19:41pm

How do you explain motherhood in countries like Alaska and Finland where mothers rarely get exposed to sunlight. Do their children all suffer from schitz. I believe most schitz is caused by teens being exposed to alcohol and drugs at an age and the maturity function of the brain is damaged and rarely repairs itself. Resulting in achieving adulthood but left with the stigma of poor behaviour and inability to deal with adult issues. This stigma only occurs in about 30% of the population.